Darkness was falling, and this both exited and worried Shas'o Kral V'nedro, leader of the T'au force striking at an Imperial war depot. It excites me in that we have the advantage at night with out armor's sensors over that of the non-augmented humans we fight, the alien mulled as he walked in the midst of a small raiding group of twelve Fire Warriors, six hunters in Stealth Suits, and two of his own Shas'vre bodyguards who, like himself, wore potent powered armor that amplified their strengths and corrected their weaknesses.
I worry, however, the war leader thought as he and his team moved silently through the narrow canyon that would flank the Imperial positions. We have not encountered this Imperial Guard regiment before, and who can say what surprises they might have in store for us? Despite his reservations, though, V'nedro kept himself and his team moving forward through the deepening darkness and the slowly diminishing ravine. This canyon will empty out onto some plains, soon, and we must be prepared to fight the Humans, for there is where their depot lies, the Shas'o reminded himself. We must do this carefully, but we can succeed. All the VX25s and my Shas'vre and I have to do is jump up to the tops of the cliff walls that surround the dry crater and cover the fire team as they get into position. Then we mow down the defenders at the main gate who should even now be engaged by the second half of my force. Almost as if on cue, the booming sounds of Battle Cannons sounded in the distance, and the alien smirked inside his helmet. Good. The full Kroot cohort and Hammerhead I brought with should keep the Imperials busy and distracted long enough for us to flank them. Everything is proceeding according to plan.
Thus, the Tau force moved on and spread out as the canyon widened as it got closer to the objective. Forged by the torrential flooding rains that came periodically to this otherwise dry desert, the gash in the earth was more like a large wash than anything, though the fact that the rains fell on the mountains and not on the plain it cut through itself meant that the sides never wore away fully, hence the fact it was a canyon. It was therefore a perfect means of infiltrating the enemy base.
A little too perfect, V'nedro thought worriedly. The enemy would be idiots to not know about this channel, and completely foolish to not to defend it if they do know. If I were leading the defense of this facility, I would ensure that this and all places be watched by remote sensors and scout troops for skirmishing. But, by the Ethereals, these humans have nothing, not even the minefields they love so much. This latter feature was most puzzling to the Shas'o, as the dismounted Pathfinder squad that was sweeping two hundred meters ahead of the raiding force kept finding nothing at all.
Perhaps fortune has smiled on us tonight, V'nedro thought, hoping against experience that the Imperium's command structure had made a terrible mistake in assigning a completely green unit to defend this outpost. Still, we move carefully, sticking to the plan; caution is rewarded with victory.
Thus the team marched, until they finally reached an area where the canyon briefly widened out into a fairly large and flat expanse, jut before it narrowed and angled down to cut through the walls of the ages-old impact crater that held the Imperial base. With quiet hand signals, V'nedro sent his soldiers to spread out in a light skirmishing line, fire warriors taking the center, with the stealth team on the left and his two bodyguards on the right. Once they were settled, the Shas'o slowly moved out into the open, trusting in his suit's Iridium armor to protect him from any ambush that would be light enough to escape notice until this moment. Once a fair distance out, V'nedro turned on his suit's comm. system and send out a single phrase. "The Light has come," he said, letting the radio transmit them.
Soon enough, it was answered. "We see nothing but the truth of the Light," came the reply, and V'nedro relaxed just slightly as the proper counterphrase came over the comms, and then one by one, a third of the Pathfinder team sent ahead rose from cover and signaled that the area was clear. At this, the Shas'o waved his strike team forward, and soon the two groups met in the middle of the widened area.
"Report," V'nedro commanded of the seniormost Pathfinder there, noting that the man was the second of the squad's Shas'ui.
"Sir, Shas'ui Tar'ka is with the rest of our squad at the launch off point," the Pathfinder replied. "Nothing is out of the ordinary, and the diversion proceeds well. However, Tar'ka said for me to tell you that these new humans have a very good defensive mindset; the diversionary force will not hold out much longer before they either break and run, or are shredded."
"Then let us move out," the Shas'o said, and then turned to wave his strike team forward. His hand raised and he was about to give the order when a sudden noise could be heard coming over those from the nearby diversionary skirmish.
"It's a Chimera," one of the stealth suited Tau said. "I know the noise of it's engine; it sounds like it's coming from up on the cliff tops."
"The enemy must have spotted us somehow," V'nedro said quickly. "We have some time before they can deploy, and the Chimera cannot scale walls. Let us move quickly," he said, and then started off in a jog, waving for his warriors to follow along. They formed up behind him, and soon the entire body of troops was moving forward together as a unit, racing for the far exit through the cliffs. It was their biggest, and most fatal mistake.
V'nedro noticed it first, that the noise of the Chimera didn't seem to diminish one bit to indicate it was either slowing down to deploy it's troops or turning off to find a way down. Instead, the noise continued to grow until, finally, an oblong shaped burst over the six-meter canyon walls just ahead of the Tau soldiers. It's direction was what mattered most, however, as the large vehicle fell in an arc that lead it straight towards the warriors of the Greater Good, and it moved so quickly that none had time to even recognize the threat before the machine, soaring over V'nedro's head, slammed into the ground, crushing half the fire warriors and two stealth troopers under its weight and velocity, their bodies making a sickening, liquidy crunching noise. The force of the vehicle impacting shook the ground, and despite the suit and his best efforts, V'nedro found himself falling over, joining several of his soldiers as they too succumbed to the sheer power of the impact only scant meters away.
Time seemed to come to a standstill then, as everyone seemed to take a moment to wallow in the shock of the moment. Soon enough, though, the surviving Tau warriors began to pick themselves off the ground, and V'nedro managed to bring himself up as well, and he called out the first order that came to mind: "Regroup!"
Faithfully, his soldiers turned and started to move towards their leader, but even as they did, the turret on the Chimera defied expectations as it swung around and began to fire its multi-laser. Beams of coherent light swept over the surviving Stealth suits, and two of them fell before the onslaught.
This sudden and unexpected attack caught the Tau off-guard, and thus they were unprepared as the rear ramp on the Chimera sprung open and out flooded eleven humans, all armored and screaming their war cry as they fired their weapons. More beams of light, recognizable from the way they created false images of beam trails, reached out and slammed into the last of the fire warriors. Each Tau warrior had at least two guns aimed at him, and there was little the Shas'o could do as his men were gunned down.
"Murdering humans!" This shout came from one of V'nedro's Shas'vre, and his two bodyguards opened fire at the humans, felling one but the others easily avoided the blasts as they ran forward without pause, confusing the Tau soldiers as they were used to the un-augmented humans preferring to remain at range. V'nedro added his own firepower, but either his targeting sensors or his sense of direction had been knocked out of whack by his fall, and thus his barrage missed the enemy.
Fortunately for him, though, the Pathfinders and two remaining Stealth Suited individuals began to return fire as well, and they managed to bring down two more of the humans. The raised spirits this gave the Shas'o, though, were soon muted as he saw the first fallen human pull himself back up and fire off his weapon – A Hellgun, he recognized in a split second of clarity – and nailed one of the Pathfinders in the head, decapitating the hapless alien, who began to join the growing pile of dead Tau.
V'nedro realized that the battle was lost, and he called out on a wideband radio transmission to his entire force. "This is Shas'o V'nedro to all Tau units! Fall back!" He called out even as he retargeted the first fallen human, and much to his dismay confirmed that his suit was malfunctioning somehow as his target lock system reported a hard lock, yet his weapons missed. "Repeat, fall back!"
"-Annot hold- -Too many of- -The hills! They-" Came the disjointed reply from several voices, and V'nedro felt ice form in his belly as he realized that he'd been had. The ice turned to fire, however, as the enemy in front of him turned their weapons on his bodyguards, and as a whole team fired on his two Shas'vre, overwhelming the superior armor with massed gunfire. Screaming incoherently, he fired his weapons without first attempting a target lock, and the Tau was rewarded with a hit that assuredly killed at least one human, as that body no longer had a face.
Then the Shas'o's heart sank as from behind this fallen human another sprang, and this one led a new charge by the humans, screaming at the top of his lungs as he brandished a glowing blue weapon that crackled with energy and illuminated the leader's distinctive service cap.
A power sword! V'nedro's mind raged as he turned to empty his next salvo towards the human leader, only to again be disappointed as both his flamer and missiles simply blasted to either side of the human, who continued to charge, unfazed.
V'nedro backed up, now very afraid as the human leader came close enough to swipe at him with the bladed power weapon. The Tau nearly tripped over a rock, and as he pirouetted to regain his balance, he caught a glimpse of his last Stealth troopers being cut in half by Melta Guns and the last pathfinder stabbed and slashed at with mildly long, simple, but deadly bladed weapons.
He took too long registering this, however, and V'nedro screamed in pain as he felt his right leg severed in mid-thigh by the power sword, which ignored completely the normally superb Iridium armor. The Shas'o fell down, onto his back, and he nearly blacked out from the pain and despair that washed over him. His suit, though, quickly cut off the affected area with a built-in tourniquet and applied drugs to deaden the pain and keep him conscious.
Soon enough, his addled attention was focused quite clearly, as the human leader stepped over him and held the tip of the glowing blue sword at the Tau's throat. "Don't move," he growled out, his eyes staring out from underneath a cap that marked him as a Commissar. Then, slowly, the human lened back a bit and without taking his eyes off of V'nedro, called out to one of his own. "Sergeant! How many did we loose?"
"Two sir," came a gruff voice. "Flowers and Wyoming, KIA. Everyone else is ready to roll."
"Excellent," the Commissar said, holstering his hellpistol as he did so. "Give me two of your men to watch this scum."
V'nedro heard the voices, and he understood them, as part of his training was to be able to communicate with the enemy, to at least offer them the chance of joining the Greater Good. Now, though, he was confused as a snap could be heard, and soon two men in full Stormtrooper outfits walked over and leveled not their own Hellguns, but captured Plasma Rifles at the Shas'o. Humans aren't supposed to want to use our weapons, the befuddled and pained Tau thought. Nor do they take prisoners…
Even as he thought this, however, V'nedro realized this was exactly what was happening, as the human Commissar stepped back and, with careful movements, used his power sword to cleave the XV8's weapons clean off of their mounts, followed soon by the slicing of the helmet's radio antenna. "There, now you cannot fight back," the human said, stepping back again to sheathe his sword. "Sergeant Namara, get on the horn and have a Valkyrie come out and pick us and our new prisoner up," he said, and then gave the Tau a hard look that made the alien shiver in his neutered suit, especially as the man's ice cold tone washed over him. "We have work to do."